Embedded Systems Architectures

Objective

The course deals with the high-level structure of modern digital systems, with a particular focus on low-power systems-on-chip and on massively parallel computing platforms. Lectures combine the theoretical description of architectural concepts and techniques with the exploration of real-world implementations. Case studies are investigated detailing the characteristics of the ARM family of systems-on-chip and of the OpenCL framework. The course showcases how application domains shape the hardware features of computing ICs, which in turn demand dedicated execution and programming models.